Crackdown irks Kasprowicz

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MICHAEL Kasprowicz, Australia's most experienced exponent of
reverse swing bowling, has labelled a possible clamp-down on
ball-tampering an overreaction and almost impossible to police.

The discarded Test paceman yesterday bristled at instructions to
umpires to be vigilant in stopping bowlers illegally altering the
ball to make it reverse swing.

It wasn't the memo itself, which Cricket Australia this week
sent to umpires, coaches and state officials, that got under
Kasprowicz's skin as much as the practices that have been
highlighted.

Among the acts viewed as illegal ball-tampering are loading one
side of a ball with saliva without polishing it and deliberate
bouncing to roughen it up when in the field.

"Hasn't that happened for donkey's years?" said Kasprowicz, who
learned the craft when he first broke into first-class cricket in
1989-90 and then honed it with several county seasons in England.
"They're trying to make a bowler's life a lot tougher."

The Queenslander admitted all teams around the world loaded the
ball without polishing to weigh it down before rubbing the opposite
side.

"Fred Spofforth would have done that," he said, referring to
Australia's first demon quick.